Finland men's national ice hockey team

Finland men's national ice hockey team
Nickname(s) Leijonat / Lejonen
(The Lions)
Association Finnish Ice Hockey Association
General Manager Jere Lehtinen
Head coach Kari Jalonen
Assistants Lauri Marjamäki
Ari Moisanen
Ville Peltonen
Captain Jussi Jokinen
Most games Raimo Helminen (331)
Most points Raimo Helminen (207)
IIHF code FIN
IIHF ranking 4 Decrease2
Highest IIHF ranking 2 (first in 2011)
Lowest IIHF ranking 7 (2005)
First international
 Sweden 8–1 Finland 
(Helsinki, Finland; 29 January 1928)
Biggest win
 Finland 20–1 Norway 
(Hämeenlinna, Finland; 12 March 1947)
Biggest defeat
 Canada 24–0 Finland 
(Oslo, Norway; 3 March 1958)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances 56 (first in 1939)
Best result Gold: 2 – 1995, 2011
World Cup
Appearances 6
Best result Runner-up (2004)
Olympics
Appearances 14 (first in 1952)
Medals Silver (1988, 2006)
Bronze (1994, 1998, 2010, 2014)
International record (W–L–T)
664–736–156
Medal record
Olympic Games
1988 Calgary Team
2006 Torino Team
1994 Lillehammer Team
1998 Nagano Team
2010 Vancouver Team
2014 Sochi Team
World Championship
1995 Sweden Team
2011 Slovakia Team
1992 Czechoslovakia Team
1994 Italy Team
1998 Switzerland Team
1999 Norway Team
2001 Germany Team
2007 Russia Team
2014 Belarus Team
2000 Russia Team
2006 Latvia Team
2008 Canada Team

The Finnish men's national ice hockey team, or Leijonat / Lejonen (The Lions in Finnish and Swedish), as it is called in Finland, is governed by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Finland is considered a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden and the United States.[1]

Recent history

Team Finland's current jerseys (outside of Olympic competition).

At the 1998 Olympic men's ice hockey tournament, Team Finland came away with Bronze, after defeating Canadian national team 3–2. Teemu Selänne led the tournament in goals scored (4) and total points achieved (10). The tournament was the first in which professional players from the National Hockey League (NHL) were allowed to participate, allowing national teams to be constructed using the best possible talent from each country. The 1998 Olympic tournament therefore came to be known as the "Tournament of the Century". Unlike previous Olympics where athletes could choose five-star hotel accommodations (such as the USA Men's Basketball team), NHL players were required to stay in the Olympic Village like other athletes.

At the 2006 IIHF World Championship, Finland achieved 3rd place winning the Bronze medal game against Canada. Petteri Nummelin was named to the Media All-Star team.

In the 2006 Winter Olympics, Finland won a Silver medal, coming close to winning in the final but losing 3–2 to the Swedish national team. Finland's goaltender Antero Niittymäki was named the MVP of the tournament (only 8 goals against in the whole tournament) and Teemu Selänne was voted best forward. The format was changed from the 1998 and 2002 tournaments, to a format similar to the 1992 and 1994 tournaments. The number of teams was reduced from 14 to 12. The 12 teams were split into two groups in the preliminary stage, which followed a round robin format. Each team played the other teams in their group once. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

At the 2007 IIHF World Championship, Finland lost the finals to Canada's national team. The final marked the second time that Finland and Canada met in the final of a World Championship, the first time being in 1994. However, only a year before in 2006 Finland had defeated Canada 5–0 in the Bronze medal game. In 2007, Canada were looking on form, being undefeated coming into the playoff round, while Finland had registered two losses in the run-up to the finals. Rick Nash scored on the powerplay at 6:10 into the first period on a one-timer from the point from a pass by Cory Murphy off of Matthew Lombardi, to put Canada up 1–0. Near the middle of the period, Eric Staal scored in similar fashion also on the powerplay, assisted by Justin Williams, and Mike Cammalleri. 9:11 into the second period, Colby Armstrong scored to give the Canadians a 3–0 lead. This goal ended up as the game winner. Finland had some discipline difficulty in the first two periods, taking 6 minutes apiece in penalties in both periods. Finland started to bring up the pressure in the last ten minutes, and Petri Kontiola scored a nice glove-side goal on Ward at 51:08 assisted by Ville Peltonen, to put the Finns on the board. Only with 3 minutes left Antti Miettinen scored to bring Finland within one, 3–2. However, only one minute later Rick Nash scored on a skillful breakaway to put the game away, 4–2 final for team Canada. The Canadians were outshot 22–18, but the Canadian goaltender, Cam Ward, kept them in the game as he was solid between the pipes. They also were able to capitalize on the powerplay, which ended up being decisive in the Canadian win. Kari Lehtonen was voted Tournament's best goaltender.

Captain Mikko Koivu holds the trophy as the Finnish team arrives at Market Square in Helsinki to celebrate the title with about 100,000 fans.

At the 2008 IIHF World Championship, Finland achieved 3rd place winning the Bronze medal 4–0 against Sweden's national team.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Finland came away with 3rd place winning 5–3 against team Slovakia. During the tournament, Teemu Selänne of Finland became the all-time leader for points scored in the Olympics.[2][3] He notched an assist in his second game of the tournament for 37 career points, surpassing Valeri Kharlamov of the Soviet Union, Vlastimil Bubník of Czechoslovakia, and Harry Watson of Canada.[2][3]

At the 2011 IIHF World Championship, Finland won its second World Championship, beating the Swedish national team by a score of 6–1. As two highly ranked neighboring countries, Sweden and Finland have a long-running competitive tradition in ice hockey. Before the game, mainstream media in both countries titled the match "a dream final".[4][5] After a goalless first period, Sweden opened the game with a 1–0 goal by Magnus Pääjärvi in the second period at 27:40. Seven seconds before the period's end, Finland's Jarkko Immonen scored to tie the game 1–1. Finland took the lead early in the third period, scoring two goals at 42:35 and 43:21 by Nokelainen and Kapanen. Sweden took a time-out before the last period's half but did not manage to regroup, and the tournament was decided by a clear 6–1 victory to Finland by Janne Pesonen's, Mika Pyörälä's and Pihlström goals.[6] Team Finland's Jarkko Immonen led the Tournament in both goals and points scored with 9 and 12 respectively.

In recent years, Finland has been consistently ranked among the best teams in international hockey. Currently the team is ranked 2nd with 3345 points in the IIHF World Ranking.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

Year Result
1952 7th place
1960 7th place
1964 6th place
1968 5th place
1972 5th place
1976 4th place
1980 4th place
1984 6th place
1988  Silver
1992 7th place
1994  Bronze
1998  Bronze
2002 6th place
2006  Silver
2010  Bronze
2014  Bronze
Totals
Games Gold Silver Bronze Total
16 0 2 4 6

World championship

Canada Cup

World Cup

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2015 Karjala Cup.[7]

Head coach: Kari Jalonen

No. Pos. Name Height Weight Birthdate Team
2 D Laakso, TeemuTeemu Laakso 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 99 kg (218 lb) August 27, 1987 (aged 28) Sweden Växjö Lakers
4 D Kivistö, TommiTommi Kivistö 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 92 kg (203 lb) June 7, 1991 (aged 24) Russia Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg
5 D Kukkonen, LasseLasse Kukkonen – C 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) 88 kg (194 lb) September 18, 1981 (aged 34) Finland Oulun Kärpät
18 D Lepistö, SamiSami Lepistö – A1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 88 kg (194 lb) October 17, 1984 (aged 31) Russia Salavat Yulaev Ufa
19 F Kiiskinen, TuomasTuomas Kiiskinen 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in) 78 kg (172 lb) October 7, 1986 (aged 29) Sweden Växjö Lakers
22 F Koivisto, ToniToni Koivisto 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 88 kg (194 lb) November 5, 1982 (aged 33) Finland Lukko
23 D Elorinne, AleksiAleksi Elorinne 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 97 kg (214 lb) February 3, 1990 (aged 25) Finland Tappara
24 F Lajunen, JaniJani Lajunen 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) 94 kg (207 lb) June 16, 1990 (aged 25) Finland Tappara
25 F Jormakka, PekkaPekka Jormakka 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in) 82 kg (181 lb) September 14, 1990 (aged 25) Finland Jokerit
26 F Osala, OskarOskar Osala 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 104 kg (229 lb) December 26, 1987 (aged 27) Russia Metallurg Magnitogorsk
27 F Kontiola, PetriPetri Kontiola – A 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 93 kg (205 lb) October 4, 1984 (aged 31) Russia Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
28 D Salmela, AnssiAnssi Salmela 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 87 kg (192 lb) August 13, 1984 (aged 31) Sweden Brynäs IF
30 G Säteri, HarriHarri Säteri 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) 97 kg (214 lb) December 29, 1989 (aged 25) Russia Vityaz Podolsk
31 G Metsola, JuhaJuha Metsola 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) 73 kg (161 lb) February 24, 1989 (aged 26) Russia Amur Khabarovsk
37 F Pyörälä, MikaMika Pyörälä 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 81 kg (179 lb) July 13, 1981 (aged 34) Finland Oulun Kärpät
38 D Hietanen, JuusoJuuso Hietanen 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) 85 kg (187 lb) June 14, 1985 (aged 30) Russia Dynamo Moscow
40 F Koskiranta, JarnoJarno Koskiranta 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 91 kg (201 lb) December 9, 1986 (aged 28) Russia SKA Saint Petersburg
51 F Sallinen, TomiTomi Sallinen 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 80 kg (180 lb) February 11, 1989 (aged 26) Sweden Djurgårdens IF
55 D Ohtamaa, AtteAtte Ohtamaa 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 92 kg (203 lb) November 6, 1987 (aged 27) Finland Jokerit
61 F Huhtala, TommiTommi Huhtala 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 94 kg (207 lb) December 7, 1987 (aged 27) Finland Jokerit
70 F Hartikainen, TeemuTeemu Hartikainen 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 86 kg (190 lb) May 3, 1990 (aged 25) Russia Salavat Yulaev Ufa
71 F Kuusela, KristianKristian Kuusela 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) 93 kg (205 lb) February 19, 1983 (aged 32) Finland Tappara
82 F Pesonen, HarriHarri Pesonen 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 88 kg (194 lb) August 6, 1988 (aged 27) Switzerland Lausanne HC

Retired jerseys

Raimo Helminen, often called "Raipe" or "Maestro" by his fans, scored the most points in Leijonat history and also holds the world record for most international games played.

The national team has retired Raimo Helminen's #14 and Jari Kurri's #17 jerseys. They currently hang in Hartwall Areena in Helsinki. The national team announced that it will retire Teemu Selänne's #8 on the 30 December 2015[8] and Saku Koivu's #11, Jere Lehtinen's #26 and Ville Peltonen's #16 on the 26 December 2015.[9]

Notable players

List of head coaches

  • Erkki Saarinen 1939–1941
  • Risto Lindroos 1945–1946
  • Henry Kvist 1946–1949
  • Risto Lindroos 1950–1954
  • Aarne Honkavaara 1954–1959
  • Joe Wirkkunen 1959–1960
  • Derek Holmes 1960–1961
  • Joe Wirkkunen 1961–1966

References

  1. ↑ "NHL announces World Cup of Hockey for 2016". The Canadian Press. 2015-01-24. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Ice hockey: Selanne sets Olympic scoring record". Vancouver. 19 February 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  3. 1 2 "Selanne's 37th point tops Games mark". ESPN.com. The Associated Press. 20 February 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  4. ↑ Anrell, Lasse (14 May 2011). "Drömfinal". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Jääkiekossa unelmafinaali Leijonat–Tre Kronor". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish) (Sanoma). 13 May 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  6. ↑ Aykroyd, Lucas (15 May 2011). "It's gold for Finland!". IIHF. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  7. ↑ 2015 Karjala Cup Roster
  8. ↑ "Selänteen Leijona-paita jäädytetään Nuorten MM-kisoissa" (in Finnish). Leijonat.fi. 2015-11-08. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  9. ↑ "Koivun, Lehtisen ja Peltosen Leijona-paidat jäädytetään 26.12." (in Finnish). Leijonat.fi. 2015-11-30. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  10. ↑ "Jalonen Leijonien seuraava päävalmentaja". mtv3.fi. 2013-06-07. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  11. ↑ "IS: Marjamäki on Leijonien uusi päävalmentaja". mtv3.fi. 2015-08-28. Retrieved August 28, 2015.

External links

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